


Day Sixteen

by walkerofthestars



Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Amnesia, Dick Grayson has no idea who he is, M/M, Wally West is Kid Flash, Whumptober 2020, a terrible horrible no good very bad day, aged up characetrs, hallucinations forced to beg shoot the hostage, mob!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkerofthestars/pseuds/walkerofthestars
Summary: Whumptober 2020Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad dayHallucinations, forced to beg, shoot the hostage“I don’t remember making that call. I don’t remember why I did it. I don’t remember how I knew. The first thing I remember is waking up on the side of the road.”Canary stared at him with eyebrows raised, Arrow scoffed.“excuse us, just a second.” She stammered, and the two walked out leaving Richard alone to guess at the recording.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Wally West
Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055567
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	Day Sixteen

**Author's Note:**

> this is part of a larger story that's been put on the backburner, I'll finish it one day but for now it's part of whumptober because i was lazy on this day.

Richard woke up on the side of the road aware of three things.

His head hurt, he was in DC and his name was Richard Jonson.

That was it.

His eyes cracked open to a blurred black sky. His head thumped with a splitting headache. He heaved a breath and his tongue was dry, lips cracked. He tried to sit up and everything magnified a hundred times, he groaned and collapsed again, the side of his face turned and found grass, dew covered.

Where was he? DC was big, he could be anywhere.

He heard a car go past nearby, his head whipped to the other side and watched it disappear into the black. His head split apart, but he saw something close to him. A highway. 

He racked his brain for where he was, why he was there, what had happened.

But his brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton. There was nothing. He had a name- Richard. He had a vague memory of someone calling him ‘Jonson’, or was it John’s son? No, Jonson. that was it.

He heaved a breath and puffed it past his lips. He couldn’t just sit here and hope there was someone out there who cared enough to hunt him down to some random side of the highway.

He struggled to roll over and push himself to his elbows and knees. His head thunked louder and every inch of skin ached but he forced himself to his knees then tipped back to cross legged. He couldn’t risk standing; he’d collapse and likely feint.

He sat for a while and breathed. His back ached and he wanted to lie down again. he searched himself. Black hoodie, cargo pants, was that a bullet proof vest? Yes, Kevlar over a stretchy athleisure t-shirt.

Hidden beneath the hoodie was a knife and knuckle busters. A wallet in his back pocket revealed no new information on his identity but he found two hundred in cash, a bus pass, a few receipts and an old photo full of people. His eyes focused on a boy on someone’s shoulders and a man holding a top hat. The back had faded writing, what seemed like names had been blurred out from age. He could discern the words ‘Haley’s Gang, ‘06’.

Well, that wasn’t much help.

He found a phone, cracked screen, blood on the back, the wallpaper just lined paper with ‘fuck off’ scrawled across. He couldn’t remember the password.

Wonderful.

He shoved the phone and wallet in his pocket with an annoyed sigh. His head thumped and his vision spasmed and he leaned back to the ground, cradling his skull. It felt so damn _hot_ and he could hear his breathing loud in his ears.

He distantly heard something. Someone yelling to others. Rocks scattered nearby and he squinted at the highway. It blurred. But he saw red and yellow, someone ran towards him and the shouting grew. yellow and red in the corner of his eye as someone rested their hand on his shoulder.

He couldn’t hear anything else, his ears rang, and his vision doubled, tripled, singled, faded.

His stomach shot up to his throat and suddenly he was looking back at the sky and then at nothing.

Kid Flash stared at the guy lying on the infirmary cot.

He was lean, dark hair, tan and every spot that could be bruised was black and blue. His knuckles were split and so was his bottom lip. One rib fractured, hairline, and his right ring finger dislocated. Nose broken- although that looked like it had happened plenty of times before. His cheek sported a healthy bloom of blue and purple.

The guy took a _beating,_ and then ended up on the side of the road.

They took him to the mountain, Black Canary hooked him up to several machines and Batman brought in some fancy doctor he knew. She seemed well aware of how to deal with these kinds of injuries because she took one glance at the clipboard and said, ‘here we go’.

They’d been ushered out straight after and Wally was staring through the window at the teen in worry.

“what are you thinking?” Artemis asked, fiddling with an arrow.

“that setting a watch roster on this guy was useless and kind of rude.”

“we don’t know who he is,” she rolled her eyes, “just because he made a call that saved people doesn’t mean we can trust him.”

“I know,” Wally murmured, “but there’s something about him.”

Artemis groaned, “keep emotions away from the job.”

She checked her watch, mumbled an ‘our turn’s done’ and walked off. Megan and Kaldur turned the corner as Artemis left the hallway.

“your watch is over, you can eat,” Megan joked.

“no, I think I’ll stick around. There’s something about this guy that’s nagging at me.”

Kaldur nodded and Megan smiled knowingly. Wally stuck a tongue at her.

“one time.”

“whatever you say lover boy.”

He flirts with _one person_ on a mission and suddenly he’s the romantic.

Well… the guy did kiss him, and the team saw it, and the guy used his distraction to blindside him and get away.

Whatever.

Richard came back to consciousness slowly. He heard his breathing against the metal beneath his head, he could smell it, too. Disgusting.

He groaned.

“told you he was waking up.”

“yes, I can see that.”

He lifted his head slowly, squinted against the light. his arms were cuffed to the table. He was in an interrogation room. A woman sat before him. Blonde, with a necklace around her throat, a jacket over a clearly Kevlar leotard.

Black Canary.

The name plucked itself from somewhere in his head. he found he could figure out names of things well enough, basic information. It was just anything personal of his own he couldn’t figure out.

“Good Morning.” 

Richard blinked.

To the right of the table was a man in green, a hood down, bow over the shoulder, Green Arrow.

“whaaat the fuuuuck.”

Canary let a small smile out at his dazed look, Arrow allowed a smirk.

“you got a name?” She asked.

“uh, Richard,” he said, blinked again and shot the cuffs a look, the hell was this about? “Richard Jonson.”

“well, Richard- “

“what is going on?”

“excuse me?”

“why am I here? What did I do?”

Canary blinked and frowned, clearly surprised, “how about you let me get through all my questions and then we can talk, okay?” before he could go on, “what can you tell me about this?”

She held a hand to Arrow, and he placed a machine on the table. Canary lay a paper down then hit a button and a recording played, the paper had the conversation typed out, and Richard followed along as he listened.

_‘911 what’s your emergency?’_

_‘you need to get every officer you have to The Pentagon right now; they’re going to attack it.’_

Richard looked at the machine in confusion. That was his voice.

_‘I’m sorry, wh- ‘_

_‘the Heroes got Zucco but he’s not the ringleader he hasn’t been for years! They’re going to attack the Pentagon and it will be a massacre. Get every man you have there now before they get in. ‘_

_‘sir, this is… where are you?’_

_‘not important, okay? Get everyone there, fast!’_

_‘sir this is- ‘_

_Crashing in the background, yelling screaming, a gunshot._

_‘the Pentagon, now.’_

_The line clicked off._

Richard stared at the page with the transcript of the conversation printed out. he read over it again as the heroes looked at him.

“we got to the Pentagon just before all hell broke loose. One of the biggest gangs on the east side attacked. So many captives were taken, and even more lives saved. You made quite the move by calling it in, but how did you know about it?”

Richard stared at the page then raised his eyes slowly to Canary, “I have no idea.”

Before any of them could start talking he continued.

“I don’t remember making that call. I don’t remember why I did it. I don’t remember how I knew. The first thing I remember is waking up on the side of the road.”

Canary stared at him with eyebrows raised, Arrow scoffed.

“excuse us, just a second.” She stammered, and the two walked out leaving Richard alone to guess at the recording.

Wally and his friends were stuck on the outskirts while the league talked about their next move.

This all reminded him that they hadn’t officially ‘signed off’ on their team. They shouldn’t have to. They were all aged seventeen to twenty, they could do what they wanted. But if they wanted to work alongside with the league, they’d need their acceptance of such a partnership. And the league had no idea how to do things differently, especially when their protégés were involved.

No matter that the team had gone on a few missions of their own, they were still ‘untried’.

They’d been the ones that had found Richard and yet they now had nothing to do with the whole damn thing.

Well… he could involve them. the guy was just sitting in the interrogation room. He could walk right in.

Before he could think of all the reasons _not to,_ he sped off and did just that.

He was still cuffed- really? Come on- and he was resting his head on one arm.

“hey.”

His eyes flicked up and looked him up and down.

“hello.” Richard sighed through his nose as he sat up, “what the hell am I doing here?”

“uh,” Wally pulled up a chair, “well, the league thinks you must be affiliated with this gang. So, they’re gonna keep you here till they know you’re not a danger to society.”

He scoffed and let out a quick grin, “great.”

Wally chuckled, “yeah, it’s… a mess. So,” he cleared his throat, “no memories, huh?”

“zip,” Richard smiled thinly, “I’ve got a phone I can’t unlock, a bus pass and a body covered in bruises. No memories for any of them though.”

Wally crossed his arms, “you don’t seem like a gang lord, at least.”

“oh, bonus!” he cackled, “I love not being a mobster!”

Wally laughed and caught the guy’s eyes, bright blue and crystalline. He awkwardly checked his mask was still on. Richard seemed like the type that could see straight through, his look made him feel like a civilian, it made him worried, a slight anxiety in his chest.

“so, what about you? It’s Kid Flash, right? Were you at the Pentagon gang event?”

“I was helping civilians get out, yeah. Punched a few guys.”

“oh, come on,” he snickered, “I’ve got no memories and you’re playing yourself down?” his hands jerked as he leaned forward like he wanted to rest his head on them.

“oh, yeah, I’m like, a huge badass, yeah. I took down, like, 400 goons. I carried someone out of a fire, a policeman swooned.”

“oh, what a charmer, you may just sweep me off my feet.” Richard turned his shoulders as he grinned.

Wally snickered, “such is the curse of a badass hero such as I.”

Richard snorted, “oh it’s such a curse.”

The door opened and the two snapped their heads to find Martian Manhunter in the doorway.

“Kid Flash, could you please excuse us?”

He cringed and shot Richard an apologetic look and slinked out of the room.

Richard cleared his throat as he sat back in the chair.

“I’ll let you get more comfortable,” Manhunter said and waved his hand, the cuffs clicked off.

Richard absentmindedly rubbed at the skin.

“how long was I unconscious?” he asked.

“a week. The league wanted you healed enough for an interrogation without you getting your bearings. Apologies- we thought you were affiliated with the attackers,” Manhunter said, sitting straight in his chair, “I’m sure you can understand.”

“sure,” Richard deadpanned, “when can I go? I have memories to get back.”

“yes, I’m sure it’s quite distressing.” His face was blank, and Richard couldn’t get any emotion from it, “thanks to the help you gave us the league is extending its own hand. As a telepathic I can assist with your memory loss, and hopefully we may even find more information about the gang at fault.”

“so, you want to keep me here till I’ve been helpful?”

The Martian allowed a small smile, “we are making the plan as we go.”

Richard sighed through his nose, flicked a hand as he leaned back in the chair, “fine, whatever. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“are you ready?”

“what are you going to do?”

“I will enter your mind and investigate what caused your memory loss,” he said, “are you ready?”

“as I’ll ever be.”

Richard saw Manhunter’s eyes turn green and then he saw nothing. His mind felt cold, there was a pain behind his eyes, and a dizziness. He drew out a long breath as his one memory brought itself to the forefront of his mind.

How long would this take?

Wally lounged in the main room of the mountain.

The fact it was back in action as a base suggested he and his friends had a good chance of getting the league support they wanted to start this team officially- but one could never be too sure.

All of them had spent years as protégés to members of the league, the issue was that their mentors couldn’t grapple with the next level of learning; letting the student go. Green Arrow fretted over Artemis and Aquaman questioned Kaldur’s ability levels. Manhunter worried that Megan was out of touch with humanity still and wouldn’t be able to appropriately protect them nor live independently without tipping people off to her identity- ridiculous, really, M’gann was more human than J’onn. Superman still refused to accept Conner as family yet spoke against him living his own life, making the excuse that he was a ‘loose cannon’. And Barry got all the rants from Wally’s mother about safety, regardless of how well Wally proved himself, there was no amount of persuasion that could get through to them.

So, it was either run off, form a team and go solo without the league’s knowledge or support or sit around and keep fighting for independence from their overbearing mentors.

It was even worse than they thought, the league had just taken _their_ mission. they had organised themselves to save this guy. And the league just swooped in and took it, because they couldn’t even handle an interrogation, apparently. And the guy wasn’t even a villain. He kinda felt bad for him, going through some kind of mental interrogation with manhunter.

And he’d been stuck for four hours with him.

"we could go to Europe; members of the Injustice League have been spotted there.” Artemis offered, sitting against the foot of the lounge chair and absentmindedly flipping through websites for Universities.

"and do what?” Wally moped, flicking his hand and dropping it back across his eyes, "as soon as we get there we’re running in blind. As much as I’m prone to that…” he sighed, “we need a way to gather intel.”

“it’s better than sitting around here till the leaguers decide we can wipe our butts on our own.” Artemis muttered, opening a new tab to analyse a course list.

Wally groaned and flipped onto his stomach to look over Artemis’ shoulder.

“The National Intelligence University?”

“hey!”

“sorry, sorry,” he muttered and rolled back over, “but seriously?”

“shove off,” she sighed, shifting against the couch.

They heard a throat clear and they all turned to face the hall where Martian Manhunter stood. The guy- Richard, stood next to him.

“the league would like to speak to you all,” He said, and then turned and walked off. Richard looked between him and the rest, shrugged and followed.

When they were all within earshot the league made sure to put on their best ‘we’re very serious and not in the mood for questioning’ faces.

“you’re all still interested in starting the league’s first subdivision?” Black Canary asked.

Wally could feel himself getting close to vibrating as he caught on to what she was suggesting.

“of course.” Kaldur nodded.

“we have decided to endorse this decision. You will operate as a team, Batman will bring you missions, Black Canary will focus on training,” Superman said.

Wally only briefly thought on that last bit- more training, they had to be kidding- before deciding to be excited about the fact they were _going to have their own team._

“the missions will be covert, reconnaissance based,” Batman said, “and this team will be used as a way to prepare you all for official roles in the Justice League.”

Wally’s face split into a grin. He saw Megan’s was similar. Even Conner seemed to be seconds from cracking a smile.

“with one condition,” Flash said, and Wally fought to stop himself from deflating.

“what?” Artemis asked.

“Richard will be joining you.”

Wally zeroed in on Manhunter, who stood behind the Amnesiac. Who seemed just as surprised by this as them.

“what?” Wally said at the same time as Richard.

“Hey, I didn’t sign up for a team, I just want my memories back.” Richard frowned, glaring back at manhunter and then the rest of the league.

“the memories I was capable of digging up suggest you have experience in… the league’s areas of expertise,” manhunter said, and Wally scanned Richard again, looking for clues, was he a small hero no one had heard of? “this team’s first assignment will be recon on the mob; I am sure you will not only be of assistance to the team but also will find yourself picking up memories of your own over time.”

“so, you want us to be babysitters as well?” Artemis grumbled.

“I’m sixteen,” Richard sniped back with a scowl, “what makes any of you think I have the skills for this anyway? Or that I’d want to be involved?”

“your memories suggest you are talented with computers, hacking, other skills that the team does not have but will require to function as a successful recon group,” Manhunter answered.

Wally’s mind immediately thought of what that insinuated, not liking it one bit. His thoughts were confirmed with Batman’s next words.

“this team will not be allowed to begin field missions without someone with your skills.” He crossed his arms, turned to Wally and his friends, “If he decides not to join this team, you will have to find someone else to fill such a role. Until then the team will be grounded to theory and training.”

“are you kidding?!” Artemis glared, “we don’t need some IT guy!”

“Batman I understand this decision, as such skills would be helpful, but we are plenty capable completing intel-only missions without complex computer hacking,” Kaldur said, ever the mediator.

“the decision is made,” Aquaman explained to his protégé, “the league will not budge on this condition.”

Artemis clenched her jaw and glared at everyone she could, Kaldur stood cross armed next to her.

Wally looked to Richard, who stared at them with his arms crossed. He was considering, Wally could tell.

“hey, I don’t think it’d be too bad,” Wally gave a small smile, looked between his friends and his acquaintance “I’d suggest at least giving it a chance.”

Megan gave Richard a smile, too, “the more the merrier.”

Conner seemed to question it still, but Megan’s support pushed him to nod with a sigh, clearly resigned to at least trying.

Richard looked between the league and Wally, who stared hopefully.

He nodded, “okay.”

And Wally couldn’t stop himself from jumping in excitement.

Kaldur allowed a small smile, shook hands with Richard, “welcome aboard.”


End file.
